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Tibetan / Vajrayana

Vajrayana Buddhism is most closely associated with Tibet and can be characterized by the figure of the siddha, the master whose spiritual realization is so profound that he or she has power over the phenomenal world, and in whom the profundity and vastness of absolute truth is fully and completely manifested. Many of our most well-known authors come from this tradition of Tibetan Buddhism .

[Note: The tags for the various schools are not definitive as many books span multiple traditions, etc. They are meant to use as a starting point for exploring this collection.]

The Buddhist masterpiece Ornament of the Great Vehicle Sūtras, often referred to by its Sanskrit title, Mahāyānasūtrālaṃkāra, is part of a collection known as the Five Maitreya Teachings, a set of philosophical works that have become classics of the Indian Buddhist tradition. Maitreya, the Buddha’s regent, is held to have entrusted these profound and vast instructions to the master Asaṅga in the heavenly realm of Tuṣita.The Ornament provides a comprehensive… Read More

Buddhism is a wisdom tradition. It asserts that we are liberated by the power of our own understanding. The three purposes of Buddhist debate are to defeat your own and others’ misconceptions, to establish your own correct view, and to clear away objections to your view. It is like the approach of a physician—to remove what does not belong and to strengthen what does. Thus, for Buddhists, reasoning and… Read More

This fourteenth-century Tibetan classic serves as an excellent introduction to basic Buddhism as practiced throughout India and Tibet and describes the process of entering the Buddhist path through study and reflection. It begins with setting forth the structure of Buddhist education and the range of its subjects, and we’re treated to a rousing litany of the merits of such instruction. We’re then introduced to the buddhas of our world… Read More

The Inner Science of Buddhist Practice contains translations of texts by two historically important Indian Buddhist scholars: Vasubandhu's Summary of the Five Heaps and Sthiramati's commentary on Vasubandhu's root text. These works present the traditional Buddhist analysis of ordinary experience and provide rich resources for studying Buddhist and Western interpretations of the psychology of spiritual development. According to Buddhist doctrine, the mind of an ordinary person even at birth holds… Read More

The Great Treatise on the Stages of the Path to Enlightenment (Lam rim chen mo) is one of the brightest jewels in the world's treasury of sacred literature. The author Tsong-kha-pa (1357–1419) completed this masterpiece in 1402 and it soon became one of the most renowned works of spiritual practice and philosophy in the world of Tibetan Buddhism. Tsong-kha-pa took great pains to base his incisive insights on the classical… Read More

According to Tibetan traditions, the Indian Buddhist Prasangika-Madhyamika school is the one that represents the final true thought of the Buddha. Unique Tenets of the Middle Way Consequence School presents and analyzes the issues that separate that school from the other principals schools of Buddhism—issues such as the existence (or non-existence) of an external world the way in which karma and reincarnation operate the nature of consciousness the nature of… Read More

An absorbing exposition of the methods of realization of the Middle Way Consequence School (Prasangika Madhyamika) by Jeffrey Hopkins—considered by many the foremost Western authority on Tibetan Buddhism. His presentation is based on Jang-gya's famous work—the original and translation are included. The reasonings used to analyze persons and phenomena to establish their true mode of existence are discussed in the context of meditative practice. This exposition includes a masterful treatment… Read More

Source of Supreme Bliss contains the first English translations of important commentaries on the Highest Yoga Tantra system of the Heruka Chakrasamvara Five Deity practice. Included is a lucid, practical, and deeply profound explanation of the generation stage by Ngulchu Dharmabhadra. This is followed by an extremely rare and profound commentary by the First Panchen Lama Losang Chokyi Gyaltsen on the completion stage. Also included is a commentary on how… Read More

The practice of Yamantaka is one of the most widely practiced deities within the Gelug tradition. It was Tsongkhapa's foremost personal deity, from whom he received direct visions that were a constant source of empowerment, inspiration, instruction, and even personal advice. Because of this, the Gelug tradition contains many unique and unexceled oral instructions on the practice of Yamantaka. These lineages fall into two main streams. The quintessential instruction of… Read More